tanahmas

I’m back in Sibu for the weekend to attend my cousin’s wedding reception. Yih Wen is one of my closest cousins on my dad’s side. I used to hang out with her while waiting to go to school at my grandma’s place when I was younger. She just got married and we had the wedding dinner at Tanahmas Hotel in Sibu.

I’ve actually met Kian Mun (the groom) during my previous trip back to Sibu. We went out for dinner together with Yih Wen’s family, a pre-wedding get-together so to speak. I find him to be a nice guy, his family is from Ipoh.

Here’s my grandma! She’s the matriarch of the family, pictured here with me and my dad.

The wedding dinner was held last night on the 19th of December. I was seated with my cousin Calvin and Noble.

This is the wedding cake. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it had the proper marzipan covering instead of the usual icing. I believe this is the first time I’ve seen this in Sibu. It tasted good too.

Four Seasons Combination Platter
This is the first course. It has six (6) items instead of the usual four. I rather enjoyed the prawn cocktail in the middle. I have a weakness for sweet mayo covered shrimp. The pickled jellyfish was nice too.

Shark’s Fin Soup
A traditional soup course that’s eaten with vinegar. The server didn’t pour the vinegar into the soup though (coz not everyone likes it) so we helped ourselves.

Baked Fish Head with Cheese
I believe the fish was battered and deep fried first before being put into a salamander and grilled to melt the cheese. This is my favorite dish of the night – I find that I like fish more and more as I get older. This wasn’t the case in the past, actually I don’t think I’ve eaten fish willingly before my mid-20’s (except for stuff like smoked salmon). The fish goes well with the cheese, the latter imparts a pleasant umami component.

Duck Two Ways
The right side is a classic Chinese roast duck and the left side is a braised duck. I thought the duck should have been rendered a bit more but the plum sauce was good.

Deep Fried Prawns
This is a huge prawn but unfortunately I was quite full at this point so I only had one. I was very impressed with the size of the jumbo shrimp.

Red Bean Pastries Two Ways
I thought this was a very clever implementation – both the desserts are made using red beans but one of them is deep fried into thin pancakes and the other has a mung bean filling and is stuffed into a mochi-type casing. The former is a traditional Chinese festive dessert.

Fresh Fruits Platter
Oh, how I’ve missed eating plum powder! Haha. This is the stuff we used to get with sliced guava and it always seemed to be in short supply when I was a kid. It’s very more-ish and goes very well with all sorts of fruits.

I managed to take a photo with my dad and the bride and groom after the dinner. Thanks for having us Yih Wen and Kian Mun! :)

Before Secret Recipe opened up a branch in Sibu, the place to get quality cakes for birthdays and other celebrations was at Tanahmas Hotel. They have pretty good cheesecakes in Peppers Cafe (the hotel’s cafe) and I revisited the place with Anthea right before flying back.

I was here a couple of days ago to explore the mythical Sibu Famous Jelly Pisang. I had the exact same thing this time around. Heh! I noticed that the entire bottom is made out of jelly – probably a good 1/3 of it, and I really liked how the entire shaved ice dessert goes.

This time around I also ordered one of the cakes that caught my eye from the glass display counter.

This is the Tower Chocolate Double Cheese. It’s a tiny cake about the size of two stacked Tiffany boxes – half of it contains their famous cheesecake and it’s topped with a layer of chocolate mousse. The entire shebang is then drizzled with chocolate sauce, a piece of their kitchen-made chocolate and a maraschino cherry.

It’s really quite good and reminds me of why Peppers Cafe used to be the king of cakes – if you wanted one, that’s where you go in Sibu. :)

I was having pre-dinner drinks at Peppers Cafe earlier today before finally capitulating and ordered the Sibu Famous Jelly Pisang (RM 7). It is described as “Fresh banana slices with strawberry jelly in sugar syrup topped with shaved ice, finished with Ideal milk and laced with strawberry syrup”.

I’m from Sibu and I’ve never heard of such a concoction before, much less with a “famous” tag preceding it. *squints suspiciously

However, it seems that there really is such a dessert despite my initial skepticism and dark thoughts about fleecing unsuspecting tourists. Eddy told me that Jelly Pisang was a very big thing back when he was a teenager – all his Malay friends would eagerly go for a bowl on a particularly hot day.

I’m not sure if it’s a Sibu thing or more of a Sarawak thing but anecdotes seem to suggest the former. This is further confirmed by Arthur’s blog post about it and a mention of it being a specialty of Ban Chuan Coffee Shop way back in the days.

Jelly Pisang (banana jelly) is delicious – there is no sweetener in the iced concoction, the shaved ice only has cordial (for color) and evaporated milk.

However, when you bite into the huge mass of jelly, you get an intense sugar rush. The jelly forms 1/3 of the entire dessert and sets at the bottom. You scoop up large chunks of it like ruby red sugar icebergs when you dip your spoon down. There’s no fine dicing (a sure indicator of mass production) here, which is a good thing.

The Jelly Pisang is really quite nice, as the unsweetened shaved ice contrasts nicely with the saccharine sweet in-house made jelly. The banana slices are lovely too. However, it seems that time has not been kind to this particular dessert.

It has largely fallen out of favor and is now mostly available in cafes and restaurants under “Local Desserts” as a historical ode to days gone by, instead of stalls.

I went to Velvet Ting’s wedding reception last night. It was a shotgun wedding (not the type you’re thinking) in a sense, her younger sister Amy Ting was also having a combined wedding with her. I know both of the Ting sisters from my high school days and in Australia.

The flower arrangements at their wedding dinner was simply amazing. The theme was roses and there were roses twined into the stairs and floral decorations on every table.

The main wedding table for both pairs of bride and groom and their immediate families was the centerpiece of the place. The three tiered wedding cake and champagne flutes are arranged at the center stage in the backdrop.

Most of the people at my table were my ex-classmates since Velvet used to be in our class. It’s like our 11th reunion out of high school. I sat beside Ita Ting, I’ve known her since Form 1.

This is the arrival of Velvet and her groom hailed by confetti all around…

…followed by Amy and her groom.

The dinner started soon after that with the traditional Chinese banquet cold dish platter.

The cold dish is an appetizer which consists of a sampler of sorts – there’s a small portion of quail, mussels, squid and mushrooms.

The next dish is traditionally the soup which is served into individual bowls by the waiter.

It’s shark’s fin soup, which I’m sure the animal welfare groups would have a bone, I mean, fin to pick with. ;)

The next item on the menu is steamed fish. Fish is a must-have at wedding feasts and Chinese banquets in general due to the association with prosperity.

It’s kindly sliced into more manageable pieces by the waiter.

Chicken cooked in herbs and wrapped in foil is the next item on the banquet parade. It is still wrapped in the foil when brought to your table and the waiter opens it up, releasing the fragrance of the herbs and slices the chicken.

The chicken is actually very tender, with an almost melt-in-your-mouth quality, so not much slicing was actually required. The process just makes it more manageable to eat using chopsticks.

There was a much needed intermission while Velvet and Amy went on stage with their respective grooms to cut the wedding cake.

Champagne was also poured out into the flutes by the two newly weds.

This is the customary “yam seng” toast which the Chinese do. It’s done in a very long refrain with the first syllable being vocalized for as long as you’re able to (highly variable depending on lung capacity).

RM 135 bottles of Seifried red and white wine were served after that. It’s free flow, they had more than even I could drink! I think I partook in the vinos a little too much, coz my brain wasn’t functioning very well today. ;)

Here’s a toast to Velvet Ting and her groom. Congratulations! =D

…and here’s to Amy Ting and her groom. Cheers! :)

The Food Parade (TM) went on after that with bamboo shoots and mushrooms…

…bamboo clams (a local seafood) with mixed vegetables (at which point our table couldn’t even touch the food anymore)

This is a candid shot of me talking to Velvet. I must have been reminiscing about this drama that most of the people at our table participated in while we were 14 years old during the school play.

Congratulations Velvet! Now you’ve made me feel old and unwanted by marrying earlier than me. :p

There was another platter of fruits containing dragon fruit, pineapple, papaya and watermelon…

…as well as the mandatory piece of wedding cake you just have to eat out of courtesy despite having adjusted your belt buckle several times due to excessive gorging. ;)

The final dish is gift wrapped boxes that has a piece of fruitcake inside. It’s supposed to be taken home as a souvenir of the wedding dinner. It’s the custom over here and signifies the end of the dinner…

…and it’s camwhoring time! ;) This is Datina Ting, another one of my ex-classmates in high school.

Hello Jeanie! I met Jeanie at the wedding reception when she approached me and told me she reads my blog. Thanks for reading! :)

There was also a camwhoring session with a girl I bummed a cigarette from who was helping out at the reception…

…as well as the rest of the reception girls.

Congratulations to Velvet Ting and Amy Ting on their respective weddings fro

JCI Seduan organized a “Wet & Wild” pool party at Tanahmas poolside on Saturday at 5 pm. I went there dressed in little more than shorts and a T-shirt (the dress code was casual) with my trusty Speedos underneath.

Our contingent (which were not from the JCI movement) arrived to disrupt the proceedings and behave in a generally rowdy manner. I’m kidding, we were invited to go there to boost up the attendance rates and liven up the pool party. ;)

The poolside at Tanahmas Hotel has a great view of Sibu and the evening sun was just right for a bit of swimming and pool games.

Some of the girls didn’t want to get in the pool but ended up being chucked one way or the other into the water anyway. Participation is mandatory, resistance is futile. ;)

This is me and Eddy, who needs no further introduction. He’s a really fun guy to be around. Our group staked claim to the pool for the rest of the evening. :)

I’m sure most of the people here needs no further introduction, being featured before in sixthseal.com and all that.

This is Mary Ngo who didn’t want to get into the water…

…but somehow ended in there anyway. ;)

There were three (3) girls in bikinis that didn’t seem to be from the JCI Seduan group so being, the nice host that I am (har har) I approached them and introduced myself to them.

It turns out that they really were gatecrashers but I got them into the pool anyway to join us for the games.

It’s sixthseal.com lar, what did you expect. ;) Please do not focus on me sucking in my stomach when there’s plenty of T&A for your viewing pleasure.

This is the other gatecrasher who took the previous photo for us.

Just to break up the excessive display of skin, here’s a shot of me and Rali. I actually met him in NZ when I was studying there. He’s a Past President of JCI.

Anyway, we got a game of water polo (of sorts) going…

…and I sprained my ankle during a particularly enthusiastic block.

Water polo video

Next round was with the gatecrashers, who really could swim.

I hard such a hard time keeping the pace with the girls that I nearly drowned.

Sheesh…

Eddy asked them how they came to be such good swimmers and it turns out that they grew up near a river and swam all the time.

Dusk came soon and the pool was temporarily cleared while dinner was being served.

The platters were carted in from the restaurant below and put into the buffet warmers.

Dinner was prepared buffet style and contained:

Shark Fin Soup

Salad bar

Steamed rice

Fried rice vermicelli

Curry chicken

Beef rendang

Sweet and sour fish pieces

Mixed vegetables

Dessert of sliced fruits and cakes

I filled up my plate with an impressive amount of food…

…and a visibly less impressive amount of dessert. My stomach literally increased in size after that huge meal.

Night fell and rendered the pool into a nice shade of green. The dry games session started soon after that. Our contingent was represented with Joyce teaming up with Colin and Mary teaming up with me.

The game is about tying a balloon to the male partner’s ankle while the female tries to burst all the other competitor’s balloons.

The pairs must hold hands and the male must not lift up his feet (but shuffling and defensive gestures are allowed) at any time.

Mary and I did pretty well, with her bursting quite a few balloons and me defending myself from all the other females. I made a pact with our side (the 10 teams were in a circle) to go after the opposite team first but promptly broke that pact by getting Mary to attack our immediate neighbor. Alls fair in love and war. ;) We lost though, due to a certain someone surprising me from behind. :p

I teamed up with Shirley for the next game which involved a complicated dance around within a certain amount of tiles routine.

You’re allowed to dance within the confines of the stated tiles but you must keep within the tiles or you’re automatically disqualified.

The amount of tiles you’re permitted to step on keeps getting smaller and smaller…

…until you end up sharing two tiles so you either have to lift your partner up or get her to stand on your feet.

Mary and Shirley singing karaoke

It was fun, despite the rain that came pouring in towards the end of the pool party. Cheers to JCI Seduan for a well organized event.